Nation news briefs

OHIO SINKHOLE SWALLOWS CAR; DRIVER CLIMBS LADDER: TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A northwest Ohio sinkhole has swallowed a car traveling down a street and briefly trapped the driver, who climbed out after authorities gave her a ladder.

Toledo police Sgt. Joe Heffernan says a water main break beneath the road may have caused the sinkhole Wednesday. The hole is estimated to be at least 10 feet deep.

Police say driver Pamela Knox didn't appear hurt but was shaken up and was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Heffernan says Knox saw the vehicle in front of her start to slip into the hole but drive beyond it. He says Knox couldn't avoid it.

Officials used a crane to pull the car from the hole..

.LETTERS FROM FATHER OF US NAVY SURFACE IN SC: CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Letters written by John Paul Jones, the man many consider to be the father of the United States Navy, have recently surfaced at the Charleston Library Society.

The letters written in 1777 by the storied naval captain from the American Revolution have been in the society's collection since the 1830s. But assistant librarian Rob Salvo says they had been forgotten until recently.

A naval history group, the Naval Order of the United States, recently approached the library about holding a conference this fall and mentioned the letter collection.

Salvo says beyond a brief listing in a card catalog, it wasn't clear what was in the collection. It turns out there were 11 letters totaling 13 pages. The letters, written in 1777, were sent to the secretary of the Navy and other officials. One was written to Benjamin Franklin.

HOMEOWNER HOGTIES WOULD-BE BURGLAR: TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Police in Tulsa say a homeowner captured a would-be burglar and left him hogtied in the front yard for officers.

Police say the homeowner heard someone trying to break into his home at about 6 a.m. Wednesday. Tulsa television station KOTV reports that the homeowner captured the man, tied him up with rope, then left him outside.

Police say the homeowner had to go to work so he left his wife to watch the suspect until officers arrived.

The 31-year-old suspect was jailed on a first-degree burglary complaint. Authorities did not know if he had an attorney.

TACO BELL CUSTOMERS GET CASH INSTEAD OF FOOD:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — That was no burrito.

Three people who ordered food at a Taco Bell drive-thru in western Michigan got something more valuable: $3,600 in cash.

A Taco Bell employee mistakenly passed the cash to the trio instead of their food Saturday. The money was returned a short time later.

Kennidi Rue told WZZM-TV and MLive.com that she and two friends thought about keeping the money but decided they would feel guilty if they didn't return it. Grand Rapids police Capt. Jeff Hertel confirmed the incident, saying an officer was called to assist.

"I thought it was joke," said Rue, 18, of Holland, Mich. "I thought we were on camera. ... The store manager literally just burst out in tears. She was so happy we brought it back."

The money was in a store bag for deposit at a bank.

Rue, boyfriend Grant Kruse, 20, and another friend, Luke Postma, 25, got their meal when they returned the money. Kruse and Postma are National Guard members who were in Grand Rapids for training.

WASH. OFFICIALS: IMPAIRED TEEN CRASHES INTO 4 CARS: BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — The Washington State Patrol says an apparently intoxicated 14-year-old boy led a trooper on a short car chase before crashing into four vehicles.

Trooper Keith Leary says the trooper noticed a 2009 Pontiac weaving and traveling 20 mph under the 50 mph speed limit early Wednesday. When the trooper turned on his emergency lights, the driver sped up, zipping into a Bellingham apartment complex and colliding with the other cars.

The Bellingham Herald reports (http://is.gd/iRWT1Q ) that the short chase reached speeds of 60 mph in a 25 mph zone.

The 14-year-old driver was booked into juvenile detention for investigation of DUI, eluding and taking a car without the owner's permission.

Leary says the passengers included two 12-year-olds, a 15-year-old and a 53-year-old man. He described all but one 12-year-old as extremely intoxicated.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Doug Engelbart, a visionary who invented the computer mouse and developed other technology that has transformed the way people work, play and communicate, died late Tuesday. He was 88.

His death of acute kidney failure occurred at his home in Atherton, Calif., after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, according to one of his daughters, Diana Engelbart Mangan.

Back in the 1950s and '60s, when mainframes took up entire rooms and were fed data on punch cards, Engelbart already was envisioning a day when computers would empower people to share ideas and solve problems in ways that seemed unfathomable at the time.

Engelbart considered his work to be all about "augmenting human intellect" — a mission that boiled down to making computers more intuitive to use. One of the biggest advances was the mouse, which he developed in the 1960s and patented in 1970. At the time, it was a wooden shell covering two metal wheels: an "X-Y position indicator for a display system."

TODDLER INJURED BY PIT BULL IN SOUTH FLORIDA: DANIA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A toddler was hospitalized following a pit bull attack in South Florida.

The Broward Sheriff's Office reports that the 13-month-old child was playing inside a Dania Beach home Wednesday when the family pet began acting erratically and attacked. Family members pulled the dog away and called authorities

The child's name and gender weren't immediately released. The child was taken to a Hollywood hospital with serious injuries.

Animal control took the dog into custody. The victim's mother, who owns the pit bull, requested that the dog be euthanized.

The dog owner was cited for not having proper identification tags for the pet and for not getting the animal vaccinated for rabies.